When Pranab Mukherjee was put at the helm

Pranab Mukherjee learnt a lot from Indira Gandhi's administrative skills, tactics in party politics

It was hot, that evening of May 22, 2004, a day before the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was to be sworn in. This was the first major tryst of the Congress with coalition politics at Delhi. As television channels were going wild speculating about who was going to get what portfolio, Pranab Mukherjee was sitting quietly in his small study in his Talkatora Road residence, going through various reports on the functioning of the Union home ministry; a few party seniors had confidently told him that he would be India’s Union home minister in a few hours. Kashmir had seen